Theories of Power in Democracies

After reading C. Wright Mills excerpt from "The Power Elite" I agree with his idea of how the power in the government functions. One part of his theory explains that the people with the biggest jobs in the country have the most power, even more so than the politicians. I agree with Sarah's idea about Bill Gates saying how since he has so much control since he has so much money. This goes along with Mills' idea that since he has a big influential job, he has a lot of control in the government today. Since he has so much money he is so well known and can easily the public's opinion and almost control their views, just because he has money. The people with the big jobs in the country have the most money, so therefore they are the most powerful. The other part of his theory explains that the politicians and celebrities are next in line for the amount of power they have, and are even less than the extremely rich. This is similar to our country today because many politicians do not have as much control as people would expect them to have. Even if they win office there is a system of checks and balances that restricts them from having control. Since the rich have more money they do not have as many restrictions especially since they do not have and checks and balances they must follow. Another part of the theory that is very similar to government today is the quote that says, "They (politicians) allow their fears and their hopes to affect their assessment of their own power. No matter how great their actual power, they tend to be less acutely aware of it than of the resistances of others to use it." Many politicians in government today do what the public favors rather than what they believe will be best for the country and try to blame others because they are scared of not being re-elected. They tend to be scared more than strong and able to do what is best. Therefore, Mill's theory of the power in government today is very similar to how the system works today.